OGDEN -- You probably know that schoolchildren who read during summer breaks will retain or gain word skills that will put them far ahead of their peers who take a vacation from books.
But did you know that kids who are avid summer readers and who include a certain book genre can get a skills boost that will help them throughout school and into their adult lives?
The genre: nonfiction, informational books.
"Children who are mainly nonfiction readers will do well reading fiction, but fiction readers will not do as well reading nonfiction," said Terrell A. Young, a literacy education professor at Washington State University.
Young spoke Friday at Weber State University at the first day of a two-day conference for educators, the 27th annual Reading and Writing Conference. Dozens of area educators paid to attend and to update their knowledge and teacher certification.
Young recommends about a 50/50 split between fiction and nonfiction for children seeking a balanced literary diet.
The benefits of reading nonfiction include learning to decode such visual clues as charts, graphs, diagrams, sidebars with specialized information and even the meaning of parentheses.
Other benefits include learning to use an index and glossary, and learning that bold or italic words in text are of greater significance.
Young talked about the "fourth-grade slump," when children move from reading mostly fiction to reading more factual books. Many elementary school students struggle, fall behind and become discouraged because they lack the skills to find and decode the needed information as it is organized in a nonfiction book, he said.
Young said such students also do badly on standardized tests when they don't know how to use a chart or graph or to identify the most relevant information. Writing research papers also draws on skills mastered with exposure to nonfiction books.
Most reading people do as adults focuses on seeking information for practical problem solving, Young said. Reading fiction remains a popular pastime, but is used by many as more of an escape from life than a tool to solve life's problems.
Young recommends fiction for its ability to create an interesting story that will draw in young readers and keep them engaged until the storyline is resolved. Some nonfiction books draw on that narrative style, telling a factual story in a chronological fashion.
The reader lure in traditional, informational books is that children can choose to read on subjects of high interest and can skip to the chapters they believe they will most enjoy.
Young said young students who don't read during their summer break can fall two to three months behind in their skills, and two months for each grade, first through sixth, would put students academically a full year behind where they would otherwise be.
In his perfect world, Young said, children would read "about half fiction, about half nonfiction, and a big dose of poetry in there somewhere."
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